EDITORIAL: We back No vote because only together can we build a better future

IT IS, these days, difficult to imagine living in a Scotland without the constant background drone of the referendum campaign. The drone has become more insistent over the past few months, rising to a cacophony in recent weeks.

PARTNERSHIP: Political union must survive for future generations[HEMEDIA]

It is probably fair to say that the majority of Scots never wanted this referendum. It has not merely been a distraction on so many levels, it has had the disastrous effect of splitting the nation. It has ended friendships and affected family relationships. The three–centuries–old union between Scotland and England is strained as never before. Scots themselves are riven by divisions they never imagined existed.

But, as they say, we are where we are. Having won a landslide at the 2011 Scottish Parliamentary election – after most of the country had been lulled into thinking the SNP had shelved the issue of independence – Alex Salmond immediately announced his intention of holding his referendum. And Scotland was pitched into an increasingly bitter cauldron of dissension.

In a couple of days we will go to the polling stations to decide whether Scotland leaves the United Kingdom and becomes a separate state, or stays within the UK with us continuing to live side by side, in harmony, with our fellow countrymen of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

IT IS beyond question that we have been given enough time to consider the best interests of ourselves, and of our country. Most of us would agree that more than three years of a campaign is excessive. Yet, even now, there are many, perhaps as many as one in seven Scots, yet to make up their minds.

Wooing those "in the middle", those with less ideological concerns over the constitutional make–up of the country, has been the great battle of the campaign.

The struggle has been waged through head and heart. So far as the former is concerned, the Nationalists' economic arguments – those propagated chiefly by Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon – have been founded almost entirely on baseless assertions and false promises.

From supermarket chains and pension providers to oil giants and the banks, from shopkeepers to international finance gurus, all have warned of the perils to a Scottish economy divorced from the UK.

The response from the Nationalists and Yes Scotland has always been, "They're scaremongering" when what they were doing was attempting to inject some realism into the discussion: a warning about choosing the unknown and the risky over comparative certainty and security.

No country is perfect but Britain as a whole – made up of Scots, English, Welsh, Northern Irish, and the many and varied immigrant groups – has hoisted a standard of civilised behaviour to which so many other less happy countries have aspired

The all–important question of the currency a separate Scottish state would use has not been settled. Unbelievably, Mr Salmond has not been able to tell his own people what they would turn to when the rest of the UK refuses a currency union.

On future membership of the European Union, the Nationalists just deny every warning from within the EU of the difficulties of rejoining as a new,independent state.

Shipbuilding, an icon of Scottish manufacturing capabilities, is in the most immediate danger from a Yes vote. It is inconceivable that the rest of the UK would allow Royal Navy vessels to be built in what is a foreign country. Yet the Nationalists insist they would build their own ships. Destroyers and aircraft carriers? Hardly. And they would recruit an army and air force capable of replacing the thousands of jobs provided by the Faslane naval base once the Trident nuclear defence system is expelled. It is not credible, let alone affordable.

Everything from pensions and welfare to defence and the public sector is based on the revenues that Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon say will be raked in from North Sea oil – an industry now staring at ruinous nationalisation by the SNP. Meanwhile, virtually every respected fiscal authority and oil industry expert warns that North Sea oil, while still strong and having a bright future, is a dwindling and more difficult to recover resource.

Having had his economic case for independence comprehensively demolished, it is little wonder Mr Salmond has recently concentrated his attention on the heart. Arguments inclined to ignore hard facts and commonsense. Appeals to concepts such as patriotism, fair play and social justice, which mean very different things to different people.

It is an attractive strategy, but appeals to the heart can alienate as many as they attract. Someone inclined to vote No would be incensed to be told they were unpatriotic. They want the best for themselves and their country every bit as much as someone thinking of voting Yes.

No appeal can ignore history, and the history of the UK has been a beacon to the rest of the world, even if it is unfashionable to be reminded of the fact in this day and age.

NO country is perfect, and all make mistakes, but Britain as a whole – made up of Scots, English, Welsh, Northern Irish, and the many and varied immigrant groups – has hoisted a standard of civilised behaviour to which so many other less happy countries have aspired.

Appeals to the heart have, it has to be said, also brought out the worst in some of us. The Yes camp has been guilty of intimidation, online insults and street–wide bullying of No speakers. It has not been entirely one–sided, but it has been a markedly pro–separatist problem.

Claims that Scotland has suffered under a colonial yoke – and they come from supposedly intelligent people as well as the ignorant – should be given the short shrift they deserve. The Union has been an equal partnership, and always will be.

Whatever the result on Thursday, we would appeal to both sides to mend the divisions and wounds that Mr Salmond's referendum have brought upon us all. Today, we are looking over a cliff face of uncertainty. No one knows what Scotland will decide. It is up to every one of us and – unlike in a general election – every single vote counts.

We hope desperately that our readers will vote No – for our own sakes and those of our children, and succeeding generations who can, with the will, ensure that the greatest social and political union is saved to last for another three centuries.

The UK might not be perfect, but working to address deficiencies can only be achieved by all of us standing Better Together.